I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain.

Last edited by riseagainst on Fri May 25, 2007 1:09 am, edited 2 times in total.

My Take On "The site has gotten worse/jumped the shark/blah blah blah":

No doubt this site has changed since I started reading and posting. Much discussion has taken place about whether its better or worse. Most of this discussion revolves around old members v new members, which I think I have a unique perspective on because I started right at the end of the 'old' days and have seen it evolve without being really emotionally attached to the 'old' members.

Before the recent membership boom, TLS had the feel of a personal support group for a small number of people who wanted to go to top law schools. When many people started joining, it lost that personal feel and became more like your average internet discussion board. However, I think the supportive, helpful tone set by the early pioneers of TLS still resonates in todays discourse. Sure, it isn't as close knit as it was way back when, but overall we're a much happier, more helpful group than other sites for people with similar aspirations.

Another issue that coincided with the spike in membership, the line between the off-topic and admissions/lsat forums became blurred. Every legit thread went from helpful information to ridiculous comments so quickly it was hard to find the info you wanted. People also posted threads that had no place being anywhere other than the off-topic forum, cluttering those other forums. I complained about this more than once. However, with the help of some good moderating and the newer members learning the forum etiquette (largely established by those great early members) things have settled down. The admissions/lsat forums contain pretty much all on topic discussion. Sure, the off-topic thread is booming but I don't think thats a bad thing. This leads me to my next observation...

Look at what time of year it is! The admissions cycle is wearing down, the vast majority of decisions have been handed out and those that haven't received theirs can only wait and speculate. Its too early for people to have questions about next years cycle and too late for most questions about this years admissions process, obviously fewer people are going to need to post in this area. However, people feel so connected to those they've met on the site they want to continue to interact with them in some way, in this case the off topic. Also, blogging activity and law school visit/ASW/choosing a law school related discussion has boomed as the cycle has progressed because thats the information that is most useful to most of us these days. Just like the law school admissions process itself, the popularity of forums with different content on this site will be cyclical.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion about the merit of this site, its as easy as logging on or not. I've thoroughly enjoy the time I've spent browsing this site. (read:the majority of my free time and not so free time in the last few months) Will Stanford get into Stanford? Will Safado become president of the United States? How many people can longodds alienate with one of the threads he starts? How did we get lucky enough to have so many incredibly beautiful and EXTREMELY, frighteningly intelligent women on this site? I don't know the answer to these questions, but I'll stay on to find out.

The building front. Lots of happy looking law students hanging out and chatting. One girl crying, but thats to be expected.

Small Classrooms

Comfortable chairs to lounge in between classes. Plenty of lockers so you don't have to haul you books every day.

Nice lecture hall

The library is attached to the law school building. It was bright, clean, lots of room. I didn't get any picture of it, but I took some video. The school is far from the metro station (~1mile). There is a shuttle to and from the metro station but I couldn't take it because I didn't have a AU student ID.

Last edited by riseagainst on Wed May 02, 2007 2:47 am, edited 1 time in total.